Sawes is activity rewated to sewwing or de amount of goods or services sowd in a given time period.

The sewwer or de provider of de goods or services compwetes a sawe in response to an acqwisition, appropriation,[1]reqwisition or a direct interaction wif de buyer at de point of sawe. There is a passing of titwe (property or ownership) of de item, and de settwement of a price, in which agreement is reached on a price for which transfer of ownership of de item wiww occur. The sewwer, not de purchaser generawwy executes de sawe and it may be compweted prior to de obwigation of payment. In de case of indirect interaction, a person who sewws goods or service on behawf of de owner is known as a sawesman or saweswoman or sawesperson, but dis often refers to someone sewwing goods in a store/shop, in which case oder terms are awso common, incwuding sawescwerk, shop assistant, and retaiw cwerk.

A person or organization expressing an interest in acqwiring de offered item of vawue is referred to as a potentiaw buyer, prospective customer or prospect. Buying and sewwing are understood to be two sides of de same "coin" or transaction, uh-hah-hah-hah. Bof sewwer and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to consummate de exchange of vawues. The exchange, or sewwing, process has impwied ruwes and identifiabwe stages. It is impwied dat de sewwing process wiww proceed fairwy and edicawwy so dat de parties end up nearwy eqwawwy rewarded. The stages of sewwing, and buying, invowve getting acqwainted, assessing each party's need for de oder's item of vawue, and determining if de vawues to be exchanged are eqwivawent or nearwy so, or, in buyer's terms, "worf de price". Sometimes, sewwers have to use deir own experiences when sewwing products wif appropriate discounts.[2]

From a management viewpoint it is dought of as a part of marketing,[3] awdough de skiwws reqwired are different. Sawes often forms a separate grouping in a corporate structure, empwoying separate speciawist operatives known as sawespersons (singuwar: sawesperson). Sewwing is considered by many to be a sort of persuading "art". Contrary to popuwar bewief, de medodowogicaw approach of sewwing refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurabwe miwestones, by which a sawesman rewates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabwing de buyer to achieve deir goaw in an economic way.[4] Whiwe de sawes process refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurabwe miwestones, de definition of de sewwing is somewhat ambiguous due to de cwose nature of advertising, promotion, pubwic rewations, and direct marketing.

Sewwing is de profession-wide term, much wike marketing defines a profession, uh-hah-hah-hah. Recentwy, attempts have been made to cwearwy understand who is in de sawes profession, and who is not. There are many articwes wooking at marketing, advertising, promotions, and even pubwic rewations as ways to create a uniqwe transaction.

Two common terms used to describe a sawesperson are "Farmer" and "Hunter". The reawity is dat most professionaw sawes peopwe have a wittwe of bof. A hunter is often associated wif aggressive personawities who use aggressive sawes techniqwe. In terms of sawes medodowogy a hunter refers to a person whose focus is on bringing in and cwosing deaws. This process is cawwed "sawes capturing". An exampwe is a commodity sawe such as a wong distance sawes person, shoe sawes person and to a degree a car sawes person, uh-hah-hah-hah. Their job is to find and convert buyers. A sawes farmer is someone who creates sawes demand by activities dat directwy infwuence and awter de buying process.

Many bewieve dat de focus of sewwing is on de human agents invowved in de exchange between buyer and sewwer. Effective sewwing awso reqwires a systems approach, at minimum invowving rowes dat seww, enabwe sewwing, and devewop sawes capabiwities. Sewwing awso invowves sawespeopwe who possess a specific set of sawes skiwws and de knowwedge reqwired to faciwitate de exchange of vawue between buyers and sewwers dat is uniqwe from marketing, advertising, etc.

The howistic business system reqwired to effectivewy devewop, manage, enabwe, and execute a mutuawwy beneficiaw, interpersonaw exchange of goods and/or services for eqwitabwe vawue.[5]

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Team sewwing is one way to infwuence sawes. Team sewwing is "a group of peopwe representing de sawes department and oder functionaw areas in de firm, such as finance, production, and research and devewopment". (Spiro) Team sewwing came about in de 1990s drough totaw qwawity management (TQM). TQM occurs when companies work to improve deir customer satisfaction by constantwy improving aww of deir operations.

Marketing and sawes differ greatwy, but generawwy have de same goaw. Sewwing is de finaw stage in marketing, which awso incwudes pricing, promotion, pwace and product (de 4 P's). A marketing department in an organization has de goaws of increasing de desirabiwity and vawue to de customer and increasing de number and engagement of interactions between potentiaw customers and de organization, uh-hah-hah-hah. Achieving dis goaw may invowve de sawes team using promotionaw techniqwes such as advertising, sawes promotion, pubwicity, and pubwic rewations, creating new sawes channews, or creating new products (new product devewopment), among oder dings. It can awso incwude bringing de potentiaw customer to visit de organization's website(s) for more information, or to contact de organization for more information, or to interact wif de organization via sociaw media such as Twitter, Facebook and bwogs. Sociaw vawues awso pway a major rowe in consumer decision processes.

The fiewd of sawes process engineering views "sawes" as de output of a warger system, not just as de output of one department. The warger system incwudes many functionaw areas widin an organization, uh-hah-hah-hah. From dis perspective, "sawes" and "marketing" (among oders, such as "customer service") wabew for a number of processes whose inputs and outputs suppwy one anoder to varying degrees. In dis context, improving an "output" (such as sawes) invowves studying and improving de broader sawes process, as in any system, since de component functionaw areas interact and are interdependent.[6]

Many warge corporations structure deir marketing departments so dey are directwy integrated wif aww wines of business.[7] They create muwtipwe teams wif a singuwar focus and de managers of dese teams must coordinate efforts in order to drive profits and business success. For exampwe, an "inbound" focused campaign seeks to drive more customers "drough de door", giving de sawes department a better chance of sewwing deir product to de consumer. A good marketing program wouwd address any potentiaw downsides as weww.

The sawes department wouwd aim to improve de interaction between de customer and de sawes faciwity or mechanism (exampwe, web site) and/or sawesperson, uh-hah-hah-hah.As Sawes is de forefront of any organization, dis wouwd awways need to take pwace before any oder business process may begin, uh-hah-hah-hah. Sawes management wouwd break down de sewwing process and den increase de effectiveness of de discrete processes as weww as de interaction between processes. For exampwe, in many out-bound sawes environments, de typicaw process incwudes out-bound cawwing, de sawes pitch, handwing objections, opportunity identification, and de cwose. Each step of de process has sawes-rewated issues, skiwws, and training needs, as weww as marketing sowutions to improve each discrete step, as weww as de whowe process. In many cases becoming a sawesperson is a defauwt career as not many peopwe aspire to be a sawesman but rader faww into de job due to circumstances. It can be highwy rewarding as you receive remuneration in de form of a sawary and awso commission, uh-hah-hah-hah.

One furder common compwication of marketing invowves de inabiwity to measure resuwts for a great deaw of marketing initiatives. In essence, many marketing and advertising executives often wose sight of de objective of sawes/revenue/profit, as dey focus on estabwishing a creative/innovative program, widout concern for de top or bottom wines – a fundamentaw pitfaww of marketing for marketing's sake.

Many companies find it chawwenging to get marketing and sawes on de same page.[8] The two departments, awdough different in nature, handwe very simiwar concepts and have to work togeder for sawes to be successfuw. Buiwding a good rewationship between de two dat encourages communication can be de key to success – even in a down economy.

The idea dat marketing can potentiawwy ewiminate de need for sawes peopwe depends entirewy on context. For exampwe, dis may be possibwe in some B2C situations; however, for many B2B transactions (for exampwe, dose invowving industriaw organizations) dis is mostwy impossibwe.[citation needed] Anoder dimension is de vawue of de goods being sowd. Fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) reqwire no sawes peopwe at de point of sawe to get dem to jump off de supermarket shewf and into de customer's trowwey. However, de purchase of warge mining eqwipment worf miwwions of dowwars wiww reqwire a sawes person to manage de sawes process – particuwarwy in de face of competitors. Smaww and medium businesses sewwing such warge ticket items to a geographicawwy-disperse cwient base use manufacturers' representatives to provide dese highwy personaw service whiwe avoiding de warge expense of a captive sawes force.

Anoder area of discussion invowves de need for awignment and integration between corporate sawes and marketing functions. According to a report from de Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Counciw, onwy 40 percent of companies have formaw programs, systems or processes in pwace to awign and integrate de two criticaw functions.

Traditionawwy, dese two functions, as referenced above, have operated separatewy, weft in siwoed areas of tacticaw responsibiwity. Gwen Petersen's book The Profit Maximization Paradox[9] sees de changes in de competitive wandscape between de 1950s and de time of writing as so dramatic dat de compwexity of choice, price and opportunities for de customer forced dis seemingwy simpwe and integrated rewationship between sawes and marketing to change forever. Petersen goes on to highwight dat sawespeopwe spend approximatewy 40 percent of deir time preparing customer-facing dewiverabwes whiwe weveraging wess dan 50 percent of de materiaws created by marketing, adding to perceptions dat marketing is out of touch wif de customer and dat sawes is resistant to messaging and strategy.

Channew sawes, an indirect sawes modew, which differs from direct sawes. Channew sewwing is a way for ("B2B") sewwers to reach de ("B2B") and ("B2C") markets drough distributors, re-sewwers or vawue added re-sewwers VARS.

Reqwest for proposaw – An invitation for suppwiers, drough a bidding process, to submit a proposaw on a specific product or service. An RFP usuawwy represents part of a compwex sawes process, awso known as "enterprise sawes".

Business-to-business – Business-to-business ("B2B") sawes are wikewy to be warger in terms of vowume, economic vawue and compwexity dan business-to-consumer ("B2C") sawes. Because of dis compwexity, dere is a need to manage de rewationships between de buying and sewwing organisations, for exampwe using Peter Cheverton's rewationship modews[11] and de stakehowder map by Anderson, Bryson and Crosby[12]

Agents in de sawes process can represent eider of two parties in de sawes process; for exampwe:

Sawes broker, sewwer agency, sewwer agent, sewwer representative: This is a traditionaw rowe where de sawesman represents a person or company on de sewwing end of a deaw.

Buyers broker or Buyer brokerage: This is where de sawesman represents de consumer making de purchase. This is most often appwied in warge transactions.

Discwosed duaw agent:This is where de sawesman represents bof parties in de sawe and acts as a mediator for de transaction, uh-hah-hah-hah. The rowe of de sawesman here is to oversee dat bof parties receive an honest and fair deaw, and is responsibwe to bof.

Transaction broker: This is where de sawesperson represents neider party but handwes de transaction onwy. The sewwer owes no responsibiwity to eider party getting a fair or honest deaw, just dat aww of de papers are handwed properwy.

Sawes outsourcing invowves direct branded representation where de sawes representatives are recruited, hired, and managed by an externaw entity but howd qwotas, represent demsewves as de brand of de cwient, and report aww activities (drough deir own sawes management channews) back to de cwient. It is akin to a virtuaw extension of a sawes force (see sawes outsourcing).

Sawes managers aim to impwement various sawes strategies and management techniqwes in order to faciwitate improved profits and increased sawes vowume. They are awso responsibwe for coordinating de sawes and marketing department as weww as oversight concerning de fair and honest execution of de sawes process by deir agents.

Sawesperson: The primary function of professionaw sawespeopwe is to generate and cwose business resuwting in revenue. The sawes person wiww accompwish deir primary function drough a variety of means incwuding phone cawws, emaiw, sociaw media, networking, and cowd cawwing. The primary objective of de successfuw sawesperson is to find de consumers to seww to. Sawes is often referred to as a "numbers game" because a generaw waw of averages and pattern of successfuw cwosing of business wiww emerge drough heightened sawes activity. These activities incwude but are not wimited to: wocating prospects, fostering rewationships wif prospects, buiwding trust wif future cwients, identifying and fiwwing needs of consumers, and derefore turning prospective customers into actuaw ones. Many toows are used by successfuw sawespeopwe, de most important of which is qwestioning which can be defined as a series of qwestions and resuwting answers awwowing de sawesperson to understand a customer's goaws and reqwirements rewevant to de product. The creation of vawue or perceived vawue is de resuwt of taking de information gadered, anawyzing de goaws and needs of de prospective customer and weveraging de products and/or services de sawesperson's firm represents or sewws in a way dat most effectivewy achieves de prospective cwients goaws and/or suits deir needs. Effective sawespeopwe wiww package deir offering and present deir proposed sowution in a way dat weads de prospective customer to de concwusion dat dey acqwire de sowution, resuwting in revenue and profit for de sawesperson and de organization dey represent.

Since de advent of de tewephone, a distinction has been made[13] between "inside sawes" and "outside sawes" awdough it is generawwy agreed dat dose terms have no hard-and-fast definition, uh-hah-hah-hah.[14] In de United States, de Fair Labor Standards Act defines outside sawes representatives as "empwoyees [who] seww deir empwoyer's products, services, or faciwities to customers away from deir empwoyer's pwace(s) of business, in generaw, eider at de customer's pwace of business or by sewwing door-to-door at de customer's home" whiwe defining dose who work "from de empwoyer's wocation" as inside sawes.[15] Inside sawes generawwy invowves attempting to cwose business primariwy over de phone via tewemarketing, whiwe outside sawes (or "fiewd" sawes) wiww usuawwy invowve initiaw phone work to book sawes cawws at de potentiaw buyer's wocation to attempt to cwose de deaw in person, uh-hah-hah-hah. Some companies have an inside sawes department dat works wif outside representatives and book deir appointments for dem. Inside sawes sometimes refers to upsewwing to existing customers.